Some 41 percent of municipal leaders in Japan want the central government to delay plans to scrap health insurance cards and merge their functionality with its beleaguered My Number national identification cards by fall 2024, a Kyodo News survey showed Tuesday.
The results come following a spate of personal data security errors in the My Number system. Issues have included cases of people's health insurance data being mistakenly registered to others, and public welfare payments being assigned to bank accounts belonging to other people.
Despite awareness of issues involving the system, a law to scrap the existing health insurance cards and effectively make use of My Number cards mandatory was enacted in early June.
Public distrust of the cards and the system was widely cited among the 41 percent of municipal heads calling for a delay, and many areas with aging populations said resistance to the merger is high.
The national government has established a comprehensive review to ascertain issues with the system, but calls to rethink the change set for fall 2024 have come even from lawmakers inside the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.
The survey was sent to the heads of all 1,741 of the country's municipal governments in July. Responses were received from local leaders at 1,370 governments, about 79 percent of them.
But while a sizeable portion called for a delay, 29 percent of municipal government heads said the change should go ahead as planned. Just 2 percent said the merger should be withdrawn, and another 28 percent chose an "other" option.
Under the My Number ID card system launched in 2016, each citizen and foreign resident of Japan is issued with a 12-digit number to link to a range of personal data such as taxes and social security information.
According to Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare data current to July 23, about 70 percent of cardholders -- some 65.34 million people -- have already registered to use their My Number card as their health insurance card.
Individuals who do not have a card or do not register for the health insurance functionality after the merger will be able to receive a status confirmation certificate from bodies including local governments and their health insurer in lieu of a My Number card.
© KYODO